Mick Hartley

From the Times:

Britain’s cultural world has turned its back on Jewish creatives according to a series of allegations gathered by The Times.

Artists, writers and performers have stated that they are being frozen out of British cultural life because they refuse to describe Israeli actions in Gaza as genocidal.

While many have chosen to remain anonymous because of the “chilling” cultural climate in the country, others have decided to speak out.

A film producer, who is planning to build one of the biggest film studios in Europe in Sunderland, said his industry was “institutionally antisemitic” while the organiser of the UK Jewish Film festival said cinemas were making it “impossible” for it to book venues for screening.

A series of literary figures meanwhile have described how they have been dropped by their agents because they refuse to use the word “genocide”, how authors are refusing to have their books transcribed into Hebrew and how they are being excluded from literary festivals and other readings.

Shocking, but not a surprise. Whatever one may think about Israel's response to the October 7th pogrom, one thing it clearly isn't is a genocide of the Palestinian people.

There are a number of possibly genocidal campaigns going on at the moment, including the Uighurs in Xinjiang, Ukraine at the hands of Putin's Russia, and the Arab massacre of Africans in Sudan. There's also the matter of the 600,000 Syrians slaughtered by Assad and his Russian and Iranian friends next door, but I doubt that should count as genocide. But the Palestinians in Gaza? Obviously not. Brutal, yes. Justified? Open to debate. But genocidal? Of course not.

The enthusiasm with which the accusation of genocide is now thrown at Israel – and the Holocaust-inversion rhetoric on those pro-Palestinian marches – clearly shows what's behind all this. These people just can't wait to turn the tables on those Jews and throw the genocide charge back at them.

There's a name for that.

As has been said often enough, Jews will never be forgiven for the Holocaust.